These two books tell us in vivid, first-hand accounts what politics
were like in France between the last war and the death of de Gaulle. The
authors, newsmen of repute, were eye-witnesses. These two stories of
turmoil and adventurous politics are very useful today when France is
once again in a crisis of confidence. Prominent actors on the scene are
still with us, President Mitterrand in the first place. De Gaulle put an
end to the Fourth Republic by letting plotters, generals and
politicians, restore him to power in 1958, as Giles shows.

He was returned to power by the plotters because they thought he
would maintain French rule in Algeria. Their task was easy because the
French had lost confidence not only in the political parties who
operated a Constitution that gave Parliament supreme power, but also in
the system itself. The Fifth Republic de Gaulle created gave all real
power to the President in its new Constitution. De Gaulle himself, as
Lacouture shows, proclaimed that the people, by electing the President
had given him supreme power by-passing both Parliament and the
Government itself. The referendum and TV appearances were de
Gaulle's tools to continue his task of restoring France as a great
power. He astonished down-to-earth politicians by winning several
referenda preferring to appeal to the people when politicians were
proving difficult or non-committal. When he failed in the last
referendum to get a majority he resigned, thus ending the Fifth Republic
he created. Formally the Constitution remains to this day. But both
stories show that Pompidou, his trusted advisor, and most competent
adversary fashioned, in fact, a Sixth Republic when he succeeded de
Gaulle. This happened because the people lost confidence in de Gaulle
and his system demonstrated in the riots and strikes of 1968.

De Gaulle emerges as a leader who was always conscious of the
defeat and shame of 1940 and was therefore determined to restore France
to a status as if 1940 had never happened. Hence his love-hate relations
with Britain, his envious mistrust of the US and his confidence in being
able to deal with Germany and the Soviets. Hence his romantic decision
to visit Ireland, the land of one of his ancestors, after his fall.

De Gaulle, as Lacouture shows, was not a right wing politician. He
wanted employees to have |direct material advantages from the results
and enterprise obtained', the workforce to be kept informed by
management and its |practical proposals to be taken into account'.
He wanted a minimum wage.

Lacouture's inside account of de Gaulle's flight to
Germany and of his hasty return at the height of the 1968 crisis that
brought his downfall |three hundred days' later makes fascinating
reading. It is an almost Shakespearian drama. |The people don't
want me,' he said. One cannot help feeling that the same may be
happening to his old adversary Mitterrand's Seventh Republic.

COPYRIGHT 1992 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.